5G8 ORTHOPTERA. 



from the larvoe in having large wing-pads. On the basal joints 

 of the abdomen are two cavities covered eacli with a mem- 

 brane, and containing a vesicle filled with liquid, which is sup- 

 plied by a nerve sent from the third thoracic ganglion. They 

 were considered by Latreille and Burmeister to be vocal or- 

 gans, but more correctly it would seem, by J. Miiller and von 

 Siebold as organs of hearing. 



This family embraces insects of gigantic proportions. The 

 migratory locust (Acrydium migratorium) is a most destructive 

 insect from its Aoracity and immense numbers. Swarms of 

 grassho[)pers are common in the far West where they commit 

 great havoc in crops. Our Caloptenus femui'-rubrum has at 

 times, tliough not of late j'cars, gone in immense swarms. 

 The larviii of man^' species live through the winter, and appear 

 often in March on unusually warm days. 



In the genus Opomala the acute antenn:ie are broad and 

 flattened at base. In 0. hraclnjptera Scudder the fore Avings 

 are but little more than one-half the length of the bod}'. In 

 ChJoedltis the hinder edge of the pronotum is square or 

 rounded ; there are no foveoht' on the vertex, and the lateral 

 cariucC of the pronotum is parallel, or quite nearly so. 



Chloedltis conftpersa Harris is light bay, sprinlcled with black 

 spots, with a black line on tlie head bchiud each eye, and ex- 

 teuding upon the thorax. The front wings are pale yellowish 

 bi'owu, and the hind shanks are pale red, with the spiues tipped 

 v/itli black. ]Mr. S. I. Smith states that the structure of the 

 ovipositor of this species is "beautifully adapted to a remark- 

 able habit in the manner of depositiug the eggs, which seems 

 not to have been noticed before among Orthoi)tera. The eggs 

 are deposited ii; old logs, in the under sides of boards, or in 

 any sol"t wood lying among the grass which these insects 

 inhabit. By means of the anal appendages the female exca- 

 vates in the wood a smooth round hole about an eighth of an 

 inch in diameter. This hole is at first almost pei'pendicular 

 but is turued rapidly off in the direction of the grain of the 

 wood, and runs nearly parallel with, and al)Out three-eighths 

 of an inch froua the surface ; the Avhole length of the hole 

 being an inch or an inch and a fourth. A single hole noticed 

 in the end of a log was straight. The eggs, which are about 



